Photo-Art 101 - - Help me create something artistic..., with an unintentional silhouette?

Xerraire · #1 07-09-2005, 12:47 PM

Hi all!

I am slowly creating a page just from my son's wedding. For my first time out photographing a wedding, I am not too unhappy with the results. I wasn't the official photographer, these are just the shots taken as the groom's mom.

Have a look here » http://xerraireart.com/Photos/categories.php?cat_id=11

However, there was one moment that Enric and Miranda shared that looked so sweet, and I really goofed and it was way dark. However, I'd love to keep that moment in memory, somehow, in a soft, artistic, and creative way. I've been playing with the image, but am so out of creative juices of late. I'd love to see or hear your ideas to rescue the photo!

Any takers? If I did this right, the photo is attached, if not, the photo can be found here » http://www.xerraire.com/silhouette2.jpg

Thanks!
Barb

Kraellin · #2 07-09-2005, 01:28 PM

there are two basic problems to this photo. one, like you said, it was taken too dark. ok, you know that. the other is that it's taken indoors against an outdoor light setting, giving a very dark area and a too light area.

so, the first thing shld probably be to balance these areas up a bit. for that you could use curves, or levels, or contrast/light, or a plugin like fast fix.

depending on how far you want to bring the lighting up, you're going to run into a noise problem due to this dark being brought up into the light. you can correct somewhat for that in several ways. you could soften more, noise reduce with edge preserving smooth or texture preserving smooth or run it through something like neat image or maybe use gausian blur.

the problem there is going to be loss of detail, however. so, it's going to be a balancing act between dark/light and detail/noise. by softening or gausian blur you can get a sort of dreamy effect, if that's what you want, and also reduce the noise. i didnt try neat image, but it might reduce the noise without too much loss of detail, but, i didnt try yet.

the problem i see is you bring up the light, gain the noise, reduce the noise, and lose detail or smoothness of texture. so, it's a bit of a trick and a compromise at times. i'm only using paint shop pro and maybe photoshop has something which can do this better. so, we'll see what the photoshop folks say.

in the meantime, you could play around with those effects i mentioned and see what you get. i wouldnt worry too much about being too creative on this. it's a great composition all by itself. the picture says it all

Craig

Elleth · #3 07-09-2005, 02:01 PM

Hi Barb,
I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind or not, but I thought I would have a go at it.
First I did a levels adjustment on the image to bring out more detail, then I ran one of Mike Finns Portrait tool actions '"Misty Glow".
And that was it.took about 5 minutes.
I'm not sure where I got the action from, if I can find it I'll post it here.

Legacy~Art · #4 07-09-2005, 04:37 PM

I used a couple of different masks.

Caitlin · #5 07-09-2005, 07:02 PM

I know you asked for photo art, but this picture can be brought back to look like a photo too. I just did a shadow/highlight adjustment. Photo art isn't my thing, so I simply put a basic sandstone texture on the second example, and a mask on the third.

Cameraken · #6 07-09-2005, 07:16 PM

Nothing worse than the flash not going off.

This picture could be saved if you really wanted to. I’ve done a very quick restore on this and it could be made better.
However looking at your website you probably have enough good images

I would leave it as a silhouette. It could look good in a decent heart shaped frame

Caitlin has just posted while I was writing this. I’ve probably taken mine too light but I’ll post it anyway.

Ken

Caitlin · #7 07-09-2005, 07:24 PM

I really like that sillhouette Ken! As I was doing that heart shape I noticed their heads fitted the shape nicely - you've exploited that really well.

Xerraire · #8 07-09-2005, 08:08 PM

This is going so well, and I am absorbing all your ideas.

The misty glow is just a very good work, I really like that.

LegacyArt, that is one idea I had thought of, but wasn't sure how to execute it, and you went above and beyond my idea and its so pretty!

The sandstone is actually a very cute idea, and all that you've done has truly brought out the details.

Now, Ken, you have also enhanced on an idea that I had, and just leave it as a silhouette and removing the background, made all the more adorable with the heart frame.

Thanks everyone!

Kraellin · #9 07-09-2005, 09:38 PM

legacy,

i like that second one. great framing.

and ken, i also like the silhouette idea.

and, since no one else mentioned it, there's actually another heart shape in the picture already that could be taken advantage of. if you look at the area just below their chins and extending down between their bodies, you'll see this is somewhat heart-shaped. some possibilities there also.

Craig

Gary Richardson · #10 07-10-2005, 02:08 AM

Hi Barb, just a quick idea.

Xerraire · #11 07-10-2005, 05:53 AM

I like, Gary

You made the bg disappear and turned it into a certain mood more.

Swampy · #12 07-10-2005, 10:29 AM

Lovely Picture! I can see why you wanted to salvage it, Mom.. :-)

In Photoshop CS, ran shadow/highlight then a jpeg reducing filter. I felt the overall photo was a little too warm for the mood so I reduced the reds.

Billfields · #13 07-10-2005, 01:05 PM

I think it's nice as is. You don’t really need details to impart the feeling of the moment. Maybe just something like this.... You might even want to darken the figures more. It has the look of the old silhouettes and darkening out the detail would increase that. You could probably then find better background and matting colors. I tried to find something that matched what was there.

Bill

LQQKER · #14 07-12-2005, 09:42 AM

Perhaps this is too abstract considering the event, however, I'm just bouncing this idea.

Knocked out image.
Replaced bg.
some hand work.
Corrected color.
simplified.
Numerous hue & sat adj.
Added texture and lace frame.

Xerraire · #15 07-12-2005, 10:11 AM

These are all wonderful and beyond my expectations.

This is a great forum with many talented and creative people!
LQQKER, I didn't consider that abstract at all! Its very lovely!!
Billfields you had a wonderful idea.
Swampy you can understand how I am trying to preserve the moment! You really did well!

These are all wonderful!